Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-03-25
n RATTLESNAkE HUNTER.
The Demand That Is Supplied by . Pesu-
liar Erenehman.

The Demand That Is Supplied by . Pesu-
liar Frenchman.
A rather tall and decidedly thin man,
with prominent, hooked nose and q
complexion like a cigar store Indian,
walked nervously up and down the
Union depot platform last night rs he
waited for train east. Though 1.-the
and active in his movement az a boy.
he was evidently on the shady side Of
sixty. His stovepipe hat was trifle
rusty, and his short gray side-whiskers
aud mustachs shone out from their old
copper background like a white cat on
a backyard fence.
care you Prof. j. Vesay." asked a
telegraph boy with a message in his
hand. t,..s
II am" said the old gentleman rs
he tore open the envelope and dis
missed the messenger.
"There is an order which would
seem rather strange to most travelling
men," the old man said turning TO a
Dispatch reporter
The reporter took tho message and
reau as 1OllOWS:
mo. Lila VINE STREET NEW YoRK.-Send
ADoLPH KoBBE."
"Do you deal in snakes?" asked the
reporter.
Only in rattlesnakes, he replied.
81 have been engaged in catching and
selling them for the past twelve or fiji
teen years
Where do YOU find customers?"
"Well ! sell numbers Of them TO this
man Kobbe, who sends them to Ger
many and other European countries,
where they are kept in glass cages as
saloon or beer-garden attraction, as
guinea pigs are here. Then there is
an old patcnt-mcdicine man in New
York who buys a great many of me.
He uses the skin for belts to cure rheu-
matism and sundry other diseases. A
Buffalo patent-medicine man uses rat
tlesnake oil as specific in some dis
orders. He buys his snakes of me.
Then | sell small lots now and then for
museum attractions and other things.
| have sold eight hundred this season
and have about as many more"
Where do you get them?"
.lONA VI AilOSt Alldi 4 nave
this year are from West Virginia.
Boone, Logan and Mcdowell Coun-
ties. About three hundred of them
caught myself, and the others ]
bought.
How do you catch them?'7
''Oh, there are n number of ways.
The most common way is to take up a
forked stick and creep up to snake
summing himself, pin him down just
back OF the head, then with pair OF
steel tweezers take out the fangs. ]
always wear a thick huckskin glove
and have a stick with little sponge al
the end. This saturate with chloro,
form and then l have no trouble.
You say you buy some Of themg'
yes. The natives will catch them
for fifty cents and one dollar apiece.
| sell them for considerable more. and
rather buy them than catch them my
self"
Were you ever bitten by rattler?'
Never but once, and that didn't
amount to much. as | cauterizei the
wound at once. Though the venom of
: rattlesnake is very poisonous. they
arc cowardly. and will always getaway
il they can. Then they always warn
You before they strike, so with proper
care Won are not very liable to get
bitten.
where are your Snakes?'
II have two hundred and fifty Of
them in trunks in the express car. and
the remainder are at Wheeling. have
a metal trunk especially prepared for
carrying them and can take them from
here to New York or even across the
Atlantic without trouble
Prof. Jules Vesay is Frenchman.
he says, and has caught snakes on
every continent, but finds more money
in hunting rattlcsnakes in Pennsylvania
and West Virginia than any other
branch of this somewhat peculiar
GaAs. Pittsburgh Dispatch.